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Chemophobia, gnosphobia, and most recently chemonoia are terms that have been used to describe this irrational fear of chemicals

Environmental Fears



Since the 1960s a strange, pervasive fear has swept across the developed world, the illusion that there is a miasma of poison threatening to invade our bodies. It's changed the food we eat, the air we breathe, the toys we give our children. 1 This strong fear of 'chemicals' often belies the evidence. Chemophobia, gnosphobia, and most recently chemonoia are terms that have been used to describe this irrational fear of chemicals in the environment: that no matter how tiny an exposure one faces, it is to be avoided at all costs.
These fears manifest as a fear of the unknown. They are usually caused by a flurry of 'factoids' (untruths that are repeated so many times that they begin to take on the aura of truth), fanned by the less responsible elements of the media practicing their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech by quoting sources of self-serving ignorance and bigotry. Most of us have been cured of potentially dangerous infections by use of (synthetic) antibiotics. Meanwhile, (natural) botulinum toxin, one of the most dangerous substances known, is used in tiny doses as cosmetic Botox injections. Caffeine, weight for weight, is considerably more toxic than most pesticides, and a cup of coffee itself contains a range of chemicals which are carcinogenic at a high enough level. 2 Toxicological sciences have produced a vast body of impartial and objective information about what chemicals do, or don't do, to humans and the environment. Yet the conflict over the health effects of chemicals, mostly synthetic chemicals rather than those that occur naturally rages on. 1 As time goes on our understanding of how people perceive and respond to risk is moving away from the assumption that the facts alone can produce perfectly objective evidence-based rationality. A vast and growing body of evidence has shown that our post-enlightenment faith in the power of human reason to overcome our passions and make rational decisions is blind. The news media provide shorter stories with important details about dose and exposure missing, so we never learn some of the critical details we need to understand complex chemical risk issues, reports David Ropeik.3

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Another new aspect of our understanding of human cognition is research that has found that we shape our views on many issues so they agree with those in the groups with which we most closely identify. This establishes us as a member in good standing and of our group, our tribe, and reinforces tribal cohesion and solidarity. Both are important for the survival of a social animal like humans. (3) Then there's the issue of the public becoming increasingly jaded about the efforts of environmental groups and anti-science activists to raise money by promoting fear and doubt. Scary stories of the week still pay the bills, which is why the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups with hundreds of millions of dollars in their coffers are always searching for something new to protest. 4 Making dire predictions is what environmental groups do for a living, and it's a competitive market, so they exaggerate. Virtually every environmental threat of the past few decades has been greatly exaggerated. Pesticides were not causing a cancer epidemic as Rachel Carson claimed in her 1962 book Silent Spring; acid rain was not devastating German forests, as the Green party in the country said in the 1990s. 5 In many cases it isn't that environmental threats have a habit of turning out less bad than feared; it's that the remedies sometimes prove worse than the disease. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a case in point. After 20 years and billions of meals, there is still no evidence that they harm human health, and ample evidence of their environmental and humanitarian benefits. Vitamin enhance GM 'golden rice' has been ready to save lives for years, but opposed at every step by Greenpeace. Bangladeshi eggplant growers spray their crops with insecticides up to 140 times a season, risking their own health, because the insect-resistant GMO version of the plants is fiercely opposed by environmentalists. Clearly, opposition to GMOs has cost lives. 5 In short, the environmental movement has repeatedly denied people access to safer technologies and forced them to rely on dirtier, riskier or more harmful ones. It is adept at exploiting people's suspicion of anything new.

Conclusion

Every piece of food we eat, every breath we take, every move we make results in the ingestion of a chemical of some sort. Every chemical has the ability to kill, but only if the quantities are high enough. As the Swiss physician Paracelsus stated, “What is not poison? All things are poison and nothing is without poison. It is only the does that makes a thing a poison.” Luke Johnson sums this up well, “I have come to the conclusion the worst almost never happens—the vast majority of dire predictions by negative commentators and supposed experts are simply nonsense. Mankind has developed a capacity to imagine terrible outcomes as an insurance policy so we could avoid threats and disasters. But being constantly in dread of fresh catastrophes is impractical and taints our judgment. Those who expect to be unhappy or ill, or a failure are more likely to succumb to their anxieties. Always remember that throughout history the pioneers have been exalted, while the doomsayers are forgotten.” 6 References
  1. David Robson, “Chemonoia: the fear blinding our minds to real dangers,” bbc.com, February 25, 2016
  2. Martin Livermoire, “Environmental chemicals,” scientific-alliance.org, October 21, 2013
  3. David Ropeik, “On the roots of, and solution to, the persistent battle between 'chemonoia' and rationalist denialism of the subjective nature of human cognition,” Hum. Exp. Toxicol., 34, 1272, December 2015
  4. “Green fatigue—are people finally tired of being scared?”, American Council on Science and Health, August 17, 2015
  5. Matt Ridley, “The recurrent problem of green scares that don't live up to the hype,” wattsupwiththat.com, August 17, 2015
  6. Luke Johnson, The Sunday Times, September 6, 2015


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Jack Dini -- Bio and Archives

Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology.  He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.


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